Toponymy Bhatkal was named after
Jain grammarian,
Bhattakalanka, who hailed from Hadwalli village, a town on the state highway toward
Jog Falls,
Shimoga. It was also known as Susagadi, and Manipura in Sanskrit. Some have claimed that
Marathi influence is responsible for the word's derivation. According to M. Shanker Linge Gowda, when the military leaders of the
Patwardhan family under the
Peshwas used to periodically invade and pillage the Manipura kingdom, they called it Vatkul, which means 'hills around the town', because the Manipura fort was located in a valley surrounded by hills. In slang, Vatkul has now evolved into Bhatkal. The Bhatkal term originated and can be found in one of the oldest manuscripts of
Nawayathi from 1688 A.D. by Akhun Seedy Mohammed. The author mentions the old name for Bhatkal as Abadaqilla. But the word itself is susceptible of alteration, and it is quite likely that initially it was Abadaqilla, meaning 'inhabited fort,' and subsequently changed into badaqilla, and finally Bhatkal. Such a name can be applied only by
Arabs, who have been associated with the place for a very long time. Later, when it was under the control of the
Vijayanagar Empire, spices, sugar, and other masalas were traded with them. According to Ibrahim Khori, powdered sugar, brown sugar, as well as sugar itself, were produced in Bhatkal. In 1479, Bhatkal and
Honnavar got once again attacked by the Vijayanagar Empire over an alleged conspiracy over the trade between the
Bahmani Sultanate. At the time of
Narasimha Deva Raya, he ended the tyranny of
Virupaksha and re-established the friendship between the Nawayath.
Modern On 28 August 1502,
Vasco de Gama-led Portuguese forces attacked and burned the port in the town that was under the control of the Kingdom of Gersoppa, a vassal state of the Vijayanagara Empire, and forced it to comply with
Portuguese demands. In 1606, it came under the control of the Nayakas of Ikkeri (also known as the Nayakas of Keladi) after the war between Venkatappa Nayaka and
Bairadevi. In 1637, it became the territory of the
Dutch East India Company. The
British were unsuccessful in their attempts to establish an agency through locals in 1638 and a corporation in 1668. Later, Tipu Sultan built a mosque in 1793, and a street was named after him. One of Tipu's wives was from Bhatkal. Bhatkal later came into the hands of the
British Empire in 1799 after they defeated Tipu. In 1862, Bhatkal was annexed to the
Bombay Presidency. With the
reorganization of the state in 1956, the town became a part of Karnataka State in 1960, and the sub-taluks of Bhatkal and
Supa were upgraded into full-fledged taluks. ==Geography==